When Community Traction took over streetcar operations in Toledo in 1921, Toledo Traction Light & Power retained the Acme Power Plant on the banks of the Maumee River which it built in 1918. Selling electricity to the growing city and having shed itself of money-losing transit operations, it would become the Toledo Edison Company. The Acme plant had been using a steeple cab locomotive built by the General Electric Company to shift hopper cars of ash and coal and in 1924 found itself in need of additional motive power. Turning to the Differential Steel Car Company, a manufacturer of electric railway work equipment in nearby Findlay, a locomotive of similar design was requested.
The locomotive was constructed using the frame and other parts from a work car Differential had originally constructed for the Toledo Railway & Light Company. The body style was copied from the steeple cab locomotive already in service at the plant and incorporated brake components from Westinghouse and electrical components from General Electric. The shape of a steeple cab locomotive is what inspired its name. With sloping hoods and a taller operator’s cab in the center, the design is reminiscent of a church roof and steeple. In later years part of the locomotive’s motor control circuit burned out, causing it to leap forward when accelerating and earning it the nickname “Leapin’ Lena”.
Differential tried to enter the locomotive market with the new model, but the electric railway industry was in decline and no additional orders were received, making Toledo Edison Company Steeple Cab Locomotive #2 both the prototype and the only production unit built. TE 2 is the only preserved Ohio-built steeple cab electric locomotive. The Museum acquired the locomotive in 2005.
| Builder | Differential Steel Car Company |
| Type | Electric Locomotive |
| Description | 50 Ton Steeple Cab |
| Year Built | 1924 |
| Retired | 1980 |
| Acquired | 2005 |
| Seats | n/a |
| Length | 36′ 0″ |
| Width | 9′ 5″ |
| Height | 11′ 4″ |
| Weight | 107,000 |
| Trucks | Differential AB |
| Motors | (4) GE-57 |
| Control | GE K64BR |
| Brakes | WH SA2 |
| Compressor | WH D3 |